Very Small Homes

The rise of the “McMansion” during the last several decades shows little evidence of slowing. But for many people, when it comes to housing, bigger is not better, and a backlash movement has been advocating smaller and, in some cases, tiny homes.

Driven by concerns about finite resources and aesthetics of scale, some communities have instituted “big and tall” zoning limitations on the size of homes. In Aspen, Colorado, the county requires people building homes over 5,000 square feet to either include renewable energy sources (such as solar energy) in the project or to pay a penalty to the Colorado Office of Resource Efficiency, which promotes renewable energy projects in the area.

Meanwhile, architects and other tiny home advocates are experimenting with new ways to pack more living into less square footage.